Heel to Toe

Not many people go to the South of Italy. South of Naples, they say, belongs more to Africa than to Europe. But it is through this extraordinary region that Charles Lister travelled, first by bicycle and then on an erratic 50cc moped forced on him by a bartender. Starting in Brindisi, at the foot of the Appian Way, he heads into a region freighted with a glorious history, riven by contradictions and straining at its enforced union with the rest of Italy. In the course of his journey, Charles Lister is nearly bombed by the local mafia, meets a number of tomb robbers and is equally engaged by the wines and the women of the region, said to be the most beautiful of all Italy. The people he meets are by turns warm, disaffected and curious; the landscape is glorious, the reminders of fallen empires and ancient wars ever present. Though some of the museums are dilapidated, the local government often corrupt and some of the villages almost deserted, the inhabitants are fiercely independent and proud of their inheritance. Heel to Toe is a vivid, exuberant portrait of a little-known and much misunderstood part of Europe, drawn with great sympathy, affection and humour.